Last month I went to a hafla in London run by some friends who I met in Cairo.  Normally I take a lot of photos at these kinds of events for research purposes, which all come out blurry and generally with the dancer facing the wrong way.  This time I was lucky enough to have a photographer friend come along and take some really amazing ones, which I hope you all enjoy.  (In addition to all the normal exciting things about haflas, like seeing new styles of dance, new costumes, or a particularly exciting move, bringing a photographer along meant I had the additional exhiliration of learning about photography technique.  This is how I came to be acquainted with that staple of photographic equipment, the monopod.  Like a tripod, but with only one leg.) 

It happened to be an American Tribal Style themed hafla as they were hosting the launch of a new CD called Nexus Tribal (guess what kind of music it is) by Phil Thornton, a famous name in the belly dance music business.  We did have one traditional cabaret-style perfomer, though–have a look at the photos and see if you can figure out which one she is!